Republicans and other conservatives had many reasons to be disappointed and upset with the Republican White House and Congress. Porous borders and the steady march toward a North American Union are but a couple of the reasons Republicans switched sides in 2006, or worse – stayed home.

Democrats, of course, driven by a wildly radical anti-war base, never missed an opportunity to bash the president and every other Republican in sight for both real and manufactured faults. The result is a Democrat-controlled Congress hellbent on regaining the White House in 2008. Nothing else seems to matter.

Nancy Pelosi proudly admonished the president: “… Step back; a new Congress is in town.”

As bad as former Republican supporters perceived the pre-election situation to be, it was far better than the current situation, which is sure to get worse, much worse, unless a common-sense tsunami sweeps across the country.

The “New Direction” that Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proclaimed is toward defeat in Iraq, toward the largest tax increase in the history of the United States, and toward enslaving, not only America, but the rest of the world as well in the heavy chains of “global warming” bondage.

Both Democratically controlled houses of Congress defy common sense by playing general and commander in chief, as they ignore the funding needs of our military. In the supplemental military appropriation bill, they try to dictate how the generals must conduct the war and announce to the enemy the date the military will cut and run. To win a very slim majority, the leadership had to add billions of dollars in pork to bribe enough Democratic votes. This is way beyond the absence of common sense; it is plain stupid. These actions certainly display the “new Congress in town,” and it is embarrassing and shameful.

The Democrat budget proposes to increase taxes by $400 billion over five years, nearly twice the 1993, Democrat-sponsored, largest tax increase in history, pushed to reality by Bill Clinton.

The budget bill is a long way from enactment, but it proposes increases on the poor as well as on the rich. Those who are now in the 10 percent bracket will pay 15 percent, and some 5 million low-income people will be added to the tax rolls for the first time. Families in the $60,000 income range will see a tax increase of nearly 60 percent. The marriage tax will be reinstated. And small businesses can expect to pay an additional $4,000 per year in taxes.

These blessings bestowed by “the new Congress in town” amount to a pittance compared to the atrocities that lie ahead as the new direction heads toward solving the non-problem super-hyped as global warming.

Consider this: Everyone agrees that the greenhouse effect makes it possible to live on this planet. The greenhouse effect is created by what are called greenhouse gases that surround the earth. Think about the total of all greenhouse gases as a stack of 100 dollar bills – 100 percent of greenhouse gases.

At least 95 of those dollar bills are water vapor. The remaining five dollar bills consist of seven other greenhouse gases, one of which is carbon dioxide, which represents, perhaps, 71-cents worth of the hundred dollars. Of this 71 cents, fossil fuel combustion is responsible for only 14 percent, or about 10 cents.

That’s right – all this hullabaloo about reducing carbon emissions is directed at 0.1 percent of the greenhouse gases. If all fossil fuel emissions ended tomorrow, it would change greenhouse gases by one-tenth of 1 percent. Now let’s see what other blessings the Democrats want to bestow to effect this meaningless change.

For starters, the Democrats want to join the Kyoto Protocol, which stipulates that the United States will reduce its carbon emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels – by 2012. This would require a reduction in energy use in the neighborhood of 60 percent. Imagine: park your car 60 percent of the time; turn off your electricity 60 percent of the time. Unrealistic? You bet. Watch the Democrats, nonetheless.

If you are as rich as Al Gore, don’t worry. Like him, you can live a “carbon-neutral” life by buying carbon credits. This is a hot-air scheme that is supposed to pay people for not using energy, to offset the extravagant use of energy by Al Gore and many of his Hollywood friends.

Look too for stricter mileage requirements from the new Congress in town. Cars will cost more and be less safe. Watch the Democrats press for even stricter emission reduction targets in the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol. This prohibition on use of abundant fossil fuel will sentence to death thousands of poverty-stricken people in developing nations who need electricity to refrigerate food and medicine, to pump and purify water, and fuel to power tractors to grow food.

The new Congress in town is certainly taking the nation in a new direction: They are taking the nation out of the Republican frying pan and into the Democrat fire.